Comparing network construction techniques in the context of local transport networks in the Dutch part of the Roman limes
Mark R. Groenhuijzen, Philip Verhagen · Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2017
This paper aims to compare network construction techniques and evaluate which one achieves the best representation of a local provisioning system that connects rural settlements with military castella in the Dutch part of the Roman limes . Using an existing site dataset and a dataset of least-cost path reconstructions between all sites, a number of network construction techniques are described and applied, including maximum distance networks, proximal point networks, a Delaunay triangulation, a Gabriel graph and efficiency networks. They are evaluated using the network metric of average path length and ‘local’ average path length to reach the castella , along with other indicators. Ultimately the Gabriel graph and proximal point networks with a high number of neighbours proved to be the best representation through a good performance on the evaluated indicators as well as the presence of a number of downsides in the other networks, with the Gabriel graph being slightly better due to a smaller number of links needed. This study thus shows that the choice for a network construction technique in archaeological case studies is important and presents a possible strategy to approach such a problem.